Franco-American Ties in Works on View at the Harvard Art Museums

This digital collection highlights Franco-American ties in works on view at the Harvard Art Museums. It was created by Camran Mani, Manager of Student Programs, as a resource for the 2024 French American Friendship Contest, sponsored by the French General Consulate of Boston. The collection contains works made by American artists in France or representing scenes of life in France (e.g. Cassatt, Morse, Sargent, and Whistler), work by the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, and works that mark historic moments of Franco-American cooperation (e.g. Peale's portrait of George Washington at Yorktown and Copley's portrait of John Adams after the Treaty of Paris). Significantly, one also finds works that establish Franco-American ties through practices of gift-giving. The American painter John Singer Sargent gave his painting "The Breakfast Table" to the French artist Albert Besnard. (It is inscribed at lower right: "à mon cher ami Besnard".) And the French sculptor Auguste Rodin gave the Harvard Art Museums' cast of "The Walking Man" to Sargent. It is inscribed on the pedestal, "[à] J. Sargent/affectueux admirateur/A Rodin".